BIOGRAPHY OF GRISELDA BLANCO Introduction Griselda Blanco was a notorious Columbian drug lord. Over the course of her life, Griselda Blanco established a drug trafficking empire in the United States of America. She began her criminal career at a young age in her native Colombia. In the 1970s and 1980s, Blanco was able to sell cocaine from Miami to southern California with the assistance of her street smarts and merciless streak. Blanco is tied to as many as hundreds of homicides, including the murders of her husband. Names like "Queen of Cocaine" and "Godmother of Cocaine" were given to her as a result of her involvement in his illegal organization. Blanco was captured by federal officials in 1985 after years of investigations having been conducted, and she was sentenced to nearly twenty years in jail …show more content…
To ensure that the narcotic was brought into the United States in a covert manner, Blanco instructed female couriers to wear bras and girdles that featured concealed pockets. An investigation was conducted by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as a result of Blanco's effectiveness in assisting in the distribution of cocaine from Colombia in New York City. As part of a comprehensive investigation that was referred to as Operation Banshee, Blanco and more than thirty of her individuals were indicted on federal drug conspiracy charges in April of 1975. Nevertheless, Blanco was able to avoid being arrested since she had fled to Colombia instead. At the end of the 1970s, Blanco had relocated to Miami. She was responsible for the establishment of a vast drug trafficking organization that, at its peak, was reputedly responsible for the monthly trafficking of 3,400 pounds of cocaine. As a means of ensuring her dominance as a drug kingpin, she also started engaging in violent behavior. Blanco would eliminate people in order to avoid paying them money that she owed, because they owed her